Tail Light Position

[jlthunder]

Does anyone know the correct position of the tail lights on a 72 GT? I have seen some with the yellow as the inside pair and others with them as the outside pair.

[Old Hippie]

My 69 and 71 have red outside. I've never removed them, so I'll assume that is the way they are.

[jlthunder]

Thanks.
Mine are the same I have the 69 Diecast model from OGTS which show the yellow pair on the outside and I have seen a lot of photos with them on the outside. This is why I asked. Thanks again.

[Old Hippie]

No prob! Glad I could help instead of being a bystander.

[tarquin]

Yellow should indead be on the outside, and red inner, this is the same on European and US spec cars.

[jlthunder]

OK, to add to the confusion, I just looked at the electrical specs in the forum for a 72 GT and it shows the rear yellow lights(turn signals) as the outside pair and the tail/brake lights as the inside pair. This corresponds with what tarquin is saying but against what old hippie is saying. Anyone else want to try?

[likengtj]

Original is Red In, and Yellow out.
Any other is a sign of PO confusion!

[jlthunder]

Thank you. Mine have been incorrect for at least 20 years. I will correct them tonight.

[opelgt722002]

However, some owners have intentionally put the red lens and brake light on the outside as a way to make the GT appear closer to the cars behind them when they hit their brakes. I seem to recall seeing a thread on that .

[Old Hippie]

That makes sense to me. I don't like the idea of getting rear ended , so if that makes people give me a little mre butt space, I'll leave my reds on the outside.

[jimsky]

My silver 1:18 scale metal die-cast MiniChamps model sitting on my desk here at work has the reds inboard and the yellows outboard. It's quite accurate in detail, I'm sure they just copied what was.

I like the yellow turn signals mounted outboard. I did add an very bright LED 3rd brake light mounted outside the car in the vents above the rear window. Since the car is so low I felt higher was better for visibility. That vent is just an inch or so below roofline, can't get much higher.

[72opelguy]

i putting four red lights on mine
and all four will work as turn signals and brake lights i think it looks better that way and its more visible

[greensmurf20]

i just swapped my yellow lenses out for red ones this weekend. looks beefier

[72opelguy]

so you have 4 red lenses then

[greensmurf20]

yeah i got 4 red lenses in the rear, if i keep the car long enough to drive it again i'm going to put blue dots in the center of all 4 lenses.

[Ben Lambo]

Maybe we should all sign in with how our lamps are ...my reds are out, which make sense as "clearance lamps". It IS possible that the reason for the confusion is that North American GT's could be red out, while UK cars were red in... any thoughts on this?

Ben

[tarquin]

Just checked the wiring diagrams in 3 manuals including the master 1973 Opel Workshop Manual and the are ALL Yellow outer and Red inner. This would make sense as your indicators should be the most outer lights on your rear end so as to INDICATE which direction you are intending to turn.

Oh, and here is a pic from the Opel Museum in Russelheim, note the Aero concept plus the origional yellow one in the background.

[jlthunder]

Thanks to all who replied I just wanted to have the correct position. I know the auotomakers like to move things around from one model year to the other so it looks like they actually did something new.

[jimsky]

I've been asked about the LED style 3rd brake light, so here goes.

I got it from JC Whitney, I've seen them in local auto stores. I took the printed circuit board out and tossed the black plastic rear window mounting setup. There are about 20 red LED's and associated limiting resistors mounted on the board. I wanted lots of LED's for more visibility.

I made a very thin (like 28 AWG) black twisted wire pair using teflon wire (very tough - but very thin insulation) about 6 feet long. Soldered wires to the to the board. Trimmed width of board to a minimum with a dremel.

Installed board in vent using some 0.020" thick Ultem film to insulate solder points on back of board from metal chassis ground. Any durable plastic film will work, I've cut up 2 liter soda bottle in a pinch. Used clear RTV adhesive to glue plastic film and board assembly into vent.

I tried drilling a hole inside the car at the back of the head liner just above the rear window rubber molding to run wire...no luck. I've never had the headliner down so I didn't know how the sheet metal up there is setup. I didn't want to mess up my perfect headliner, so plan B.

Plan B. I ran the wire pair to the left inside the vent, then ran it out the very left corner of the last vent to the rubber rear window molding just below. Dressed the wire inside the rubber molding down to the bottom corner. Was able to poke the wire down through the bottom corner gap between the window glass and the sheet metal window cutout. Used a bit of RTV to assure rubber window molding was OK. Once inside car just spliced into drivers side rear brake light wiring.

Makes me feel better knowing I've got a 3rd brake light.

[jimsky]

Second picture shown here. The wire pair is just barely visible, see if you can find it. Not my desired installation, but it works.

[houserc]

And if you really want to have fun, you can add some circuitry...
http://www.charlton.vic.edu.au/mark/...s/k-rider.html

Or you can purchase a complete kit from http://www.knightlight.co.uk/knight-...s-products.htm
There is an animation of the Golf Mk4 brake light at the bottom.

I'm not sure what the law is on moving lights like this, so you might want to check your state or local laws.

[Motor Mouth]

Having had a look in my GT Bible, 'Projekt 1484' I can confirm that for most years the indicators should be on the outside, stop lights on the inside. However for '72' only there are some images with GT's showing a reversal of this.

Hope this helps.

BTW.....like the LED's idea.

[RICK KRAJENKE]

to greensmurf20 - i've always wondered about the purpose of those blue-purpleish dots on rear lenses !